Japan firm creates smallest power source

JAPANESE electronics firm Murata says it has created the smallest capacitor, a device that stores electric energy.

Yuri Kageyama

AAPSeptember 5, 201210:07pm

SMALL is big for Murata: The Japanese electronics maker has developed the world's tiniest version of a component known as the capacitor.

And that's potentially big business.

Capacitors, which store electric energy, are used in the dozens, even in the hundreds, in just about every type of gadget - smartphones, laptops, parts for hybrid cars, medical equipment and digital cameras. Smaller componentry allows for other innovations and improvements from thinner devices to longer battery life.

The latest capacitor, measuring just 0.25 millimetre by 0.125 millimetre, is as tiny as the full stop at the end of this sentence.

Murata Manufacturing Co's focus on highly specialised technological breakthroughs, such as the one announced on Wednesday, also underlines the challenges confronting Japan's electronics industry - once unquestioned leaders but now taking a beating from cheaper Asian rivals.

Japanese makers have struggled to compete against South Korean rivals and manufacturers in Taiwan, China and the rest of Asia with access to cheaper labour. The Japanese are also fighting the strong yen, which erodes the value of its earnings.

"The power of Japanese high-tech makers is waning - in development, marketing and management. And it can't all be blamed on a strong yen," said Rick Oyama, analyst with market researcher HIS iSuppli in Tokyo. "What counts is whether a company can deliver creative products and innovation."

Murata, based in the ancient capital of Kyoto, central Japan, is best known for its bicycle-riding robot, which showcases its delicate sensor technology. But since its founding in 1944, the company's core business has been ceramic capacitors.

The latest super-small capacitor is a quarter of the size of the previous smallest ceramic capacitor, also developed by Murata, in 2004.

Murata Executive Vice President Yukio Hamaji, who heads the component business, said that building something so small that is composed of even tinier layers of material to store electricity, is a challenge, requiring precision in preparing raw materials and baking the ceramic.

"This is so small you can barely see it," he said. "You can imagine how difficult making something that small can be, and do it in mass production and in stable supply."

Murata is the world number one in market share and production capacity in ceramic capacitors.